Scalable Video Streaming over the Internet

Revision with unchanged content. This book covers advanced topics on scalable video streaming over the Internet. In the first part, this book investigates scalable video multicasting mechanisms by comparing layered video multicasting with replicated stream video multicasting. Even though it has been generally accepted that layered video multicasting is superior to replicated stream multicasting, it is not based on a systematic and quantitative comparison. This book argues that there are indeed scenarios where replicated stream multicasting is a preferred approach. In the second part, this book considers the problem of accommodating the mismatch between the available bandwidth variability and the data rate variability of the scalable VBR video. An optimal quality adaptation algorithm is proposed to minimize the quality variation while at the same time increasing the utilization of the available bandwidth. In the last part, the TCP protocol is investigated for streaming packetized video data. A video streaming system is mathematically modeled, and three relationships are derived under which the system achieves desired performance.